Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Monday that President Trump often “lies” to the American public but that it was all part of his broader way of communicating and that Americans were in on the “joke.”
“The president has told lies. I’m not one of these sycophants where I’m going to sit out here and pretend that he hasn’t said a few things that are not truthful,” he said during an appearance on CNN Monday. “You have to understand his operating style, you have to understand his presentation skills. The stuff that he’s saying that isn’t truthful, most people get the joke about it.”
“I’m not justifying it,”Scaramucci added, “I’m just explaining based on my observation of the president’s personality and someone who’s worked for him, what he’s doing and why he’s doing it and it’s been generally effective for him over the past 45 years.”
The Scaramucci defenses of Trump are a stark contrast to his earlier criticism of the president on Fox Business, which could occasionally be ferocious.
“Unbridled demagoguery has driven the GOP to an inflection point from which there is no turning back,” Scaramucci said in a 2016 Fox Business editorial, published several weeks before the Iowa caucus.
“If a populist prevails in the primary, as appears increasingly likely, the party faces either devastating defeat in the general election or a new, unrecognizable identity. In either scenario, a large swath of the GOP electorate will be forced to eat crow and reevaluate its affiliation,” he continued.
Scaramucci, a longtime New York City financier, rocketed to fame after President Trump tapped him to lead the White House communications team in July 2017. Scaramucci lasted only 11 days on the job after The New Yorker published several vulgar remarks he made toward several of his West Wing colleagues including Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus.
The Mooch — as he is widely known — has managed to stay in the limelight since leaving Washington, making the rounds as a media talking head, authoring a book about Trump, and stoking speculation about a possible television show with attorney Michael Avenatti.
Those plans are probably on hold after the lawyer famous for representing porn star Stormy Daniels was booked by LAPD on felony-class domestic violence charges last month.